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Hartsburg Tree Farm Hit Hard by Pathogen

A Mid-Missouri tree farm is dealing with the effects of a rampant tree killing fungus. Timber View Tree Farm has been in business since 1972 and they are no strangers to the fungus known as brown spot needle blight. But according to the farm’s owner, Daryll Raitt, this year’s losses were unprecedented.

“We’ve already cut out about 600 trees, and [there are] probably another 300 that we need to cut because they’re dead. We would lose every year to brown spot, even when we sprayed, but nothing like we’ve lost this year,” Raitt said.

Brown spot needle blight primarily effects species of plants that are not native to Missouri, but most of the pines which Raitt sells are European in decent, which makes them susceptible to the pathogen. It starts at the bottom of the trees, turning the needles brown, before eventually killing the entire tree. Forest Pathologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, Natalie Diesel, says optimal weather conditions have amplified the pathogen’s effects.

“As far as the pathogen goes, we had really great conditions for the pathogen this year. A lot of these needle blights do well during wet humid conditions, especially when you have a wet spring like we had this year, and so if you have several wet springs in a row, year after year, that pathogen is really able to build up in the environment,” said Diesel.

Raitt sprays his trees under normal circumstances with chemicals that prevent Brown Spot from spreading, but says the large amount of rain over the last few spring seasons washes the chemicals off of his trees. Timber View Tree Farm will still have some of their cut-your-own trees to sell this holiday season, but Raitt said they will likely run short.